Shuttle-box tension-controlling mechanism for looms



June 19, 1928.]

J. NQRTHROP SHUTTLE BOX TENSION CONTROLLING MECHANISM FOR LOOMS Filed Aug. 12, 1924 2' Sheets-Sheet l June 19, 1928.. 1,674,257

J. NORTHROP SHUTTLE BOX TENSION CONTROLLING MECHANISM FOR LOOMS Filed Aug. 12, 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 jwenlvn' 706577095.

I Patented June 19, 1928.

UNITED' STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JQNAS NORTHROP, OF HOPEDALE, MASSAGHUS ETTS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGN- MENTS, TO DRAPEIR, CORPORATION, OF HOPEDALE, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORA- TION OF MAINE.

SHUTTLE-BOX TENSION-CONTROLLING MECHANISM FOR LOOMS.

Application filed August 12, 1924. Serial No. 781,548.

The present invention relates to shuttle box tension controlling mechanisms for looms.

The object of the invention is to improve and reor anize shuttle box tension controlling mec anisms for looms with a View to obtaining variable pressure in receiving the shuttle, depending upon the velocity of picking, and also to releasing the shuttle box tension at the proper time to facilitate the picking operation. To these ends the present invention consists in the shuttle box tension controlling mechanism hereinafter described and particularly defined in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings illustrating the preferred form of the invention, Fig. 1 is an elevation partly in 880131011 of a portion of the loom embodying the features of the present invention, the lay being shown in approximately back center position; Fig. 2 is a detail of a binder releasing device; Fig. 3 is a plan view of the parts in front center position; and Fig. 4 is a front elevation of some of the parts shown in Fig. 3.

The illustrated embodiment of the invention is described as follows: The lay 5 is supported on the sword 6 provided with the usual shuttle box 7 The dagger shaft 8 supported on the lay in the usual manner, carries binder fingers 9 and the dagger 10. Attached to the dagger shaft is the fork 11, one arm 12 of which has a hole in its end which receives the lateral pin 13 of the tension rod 14. The lower end of the tension rod passes through a hole in the collar 15 pivotally mounted at 16 in a bracket 17 bolted to the frame 18 of the loom. A spring 19 on the lower end of the rod 14 below the collar 15 takes against such collar at its upper end and against the adjusting nut 20 at its lower end, being secured in adjusted position by the lock nut 21. The spring 19 normally tends to pull upon the arm 12 and to turn the dagger shaft 8 in a direction to cause the dagger to strike the steel 22 of the frog 23. This pull upon the tension rod 14 causes pressure to be exerted upon the shuttle binder 24 to cause proper tension to be exerted upon the shuttle as it enters the shuttle box.

The arm 12 also carries a spring stop 25 which is supported in an ear 26 projected .ter, assumin laterally from the arm 12. A spring 27 embraces the shank of the stop 25 taking against the upper surface of the ear at its lower end, and against the head of the stop 25 at its upper end. The stop 25 is provided on the under side of the ear 26 with an adjusting nut 28 which is secured in adjusted position by the lock nut 29. This dagger shaft stop 25 cushions the movements of the fork 11 towards the under side of the lay. As the shuttle enters a shuttle box it presses the binder outwardly to make room for itself, and this movement of the binder causes the binder fingers to be forced back, thereby turning the dagger shaft counterclockw1se, as viewed in Fig. 1, and moving the dagger shaft stop 25 into contact with the un er side of the lay. The stop 25 serves to prevent overthrow of the binders by the entering shuttle, and thereby secures the retention of the proper binder pressure on the entering shuttle.

The fork 11 also bears a second arm 30 on the forked end of which is pivoted at 31 the by-pass pawl 32. The by-pass pawl is normally held in the position shown in Fig. 1 by a spring 33 attached to the laterally extended lug 34 on the upper end of the by-pass pawl 31 at the forward end of the spring, and by means of the strap 35 attached at its rear end to the sword .6 of the lay. The by-pass pawl carries a roller 36 which is adapted to engage a cam 37 adjustably secured by the bolt 38 to the bracket 39 secured to a rearward projection 40 from a portion of the frame of the loom.

The operation of the mechanism is as follows: Starting with the lay on the back centhe shuttle box to contain a shuttle whio presses upon the binder 24 and thereby holds the binder finger 9 in rearward position, the dagger 10 will be held in raised position thereby during the forward movement of the lay. During such movement the by-pass pawl 32, as it advances, comes into engagement with the surface of the cam 37 The pawl is turned to the right,-as viewed in Fig. 1, stretching the spring 33, and the roll 36 rides up over the cam without an effect upon the position of the dagger, the by-pass pawl 'elding as it' passes over the cam. After the by-pass pawl passes beyond the cam, it snaps back i to normal position under the influence of its spring, so that at the end of the forward movement of the lay the by-pass pawl occupies its normal position with respect to the fork upon which it is carried, as shown in broken lines 1n Fi 1. During this for ward movement of t e lay, the tension rod '14 pulls downwardly upon the fork 11 and thereby tends to turn thedagger down into position to engage the frog. But inasmuch as the assumption is that a shuttle occupies the-box at this time, no turning movement is imparted to the danger. During the backward movement of the lay the by-pass pawl dagger fingers during the time the roll on 32 rides up over the cam 37 and by reason of the engagement of the projection 34 therefrom, which rests upon the upper surface of the arm 30 of the fork 11, it lifts the fork '11 and thereby turns the dagger shaft and relieves thebinder of the pressure of the the by-pass pawl is in engagement with the cam. This release of the pressure on the binders due to the dagger fin ers occurs at atime when the shuttle is! eing picked. The relief of the binders from this pressure due to the tension rod 14 is momentary,- is

for the purpose of facilitating picking of the shuttle and reducing the power required for that pur ose, and rendering more certain and uni orm the force imparted to the shuttle, as well as to diminish the force reqllliired in picking. As soon as the roll of t e by-pass pawl passes off of the tension controlling cam 37, the pressure of the fingers upon the binders is restored by the pull of the tension rod 14 on the dagger rod fork 11. As, the lay retreats the pressure exerted by the tension rod 14 on the binder fingers increases to a maximum at back center and decreases thereafter as the lay moves forward. The earliest time of shuttle arrival is back center; .consequently the pres sure of'the binders on the shuttle decreases with later and later arrival of theshuttle in the box.

It may be remarked that from front center to back center the tension exerted on the shuttle due to the pressure of the binder fingers first increases from front center until the by-pass cam roll strikes the cam. ,The tension is then relieved during the passage of the cam roll over the surface of the cam, and thereafter when the cam roll leaves the cam, the pressure is restored again to the binders by thetension rod 14, and the pressure on the binders increases continuously to back center. During the passage of the by-pass pawl cam roll over the cam, we have 0 served that the dagger rod fork 11 is a raised. At this time the dagger rod stop side of the lay is prevented.

One feature of the invention resides in the use of the spring dagger rod stop in connection with shuttle tension releasing mechanism. The da ger rod stop once set in an adjustment suitable to prevent overthrow of the binders due to the entering shuttle ma retain such adjustment with different adjustments of the means for releasing the binder pressure. With a positive binder stop it is apparent that great nicety of adjustment of the stop would be required with every readjustment of the release with highly increased difficulty of securin'g the proper degree of release, whereas, with a spring stop, the adjustment of the binder release alone will be required-the spring stop compensating for variations of positlon of the stop carrying arm. Thus .in the illustrated embodiment of the invention, vertical adjustment of the binder pressure release cam 37 may be made to obtain the desired binder pressure without any adjustmentof the stop 25 being required, the latter still performing its normal yielding function of preventing overthrow of the binder.

Another feature of the invention consists in the construction by virture of which the shuttle tension release takes place irrespective of the direction of rotation of the crank shaft. It sometimes occurs that when the protector mechanism operates, the lay will rebound, and in the construction of the application of Clare H. Draper, weft replenishing loom, filed September 18, 1922, Serial No. 588,776, the shuttle tension releasing 1 means normally operates on forward rotation of the. crank (i. e., rotation in such direction that the lay is moving forward when the crank is on the bottom center) to release the tension at the proper time in 1 5 the movement'of the lay, but in such construction, if the crank shaft be rotating in the reverse direction, or backwardly, then the shuttle tension will not be released during forward movement of the lay because the no forward movement of the lay would occur when the crank was moving through top center toward front center. Such condition of affairs would present itself in case the loom banged off, because the shuttle was not 115 in the box but in the shed; then the compression of the anti-bang springs would cause the lay to rebound and thus cause the crank shaft to begin to turn in reverse or backward direction and then, as 120 the lay would be moving forward with the crank on top center, the binders would be released and consequently the dagger would be raised above the fro and no protection against a smash would e afforded. In the 1526 present construction, it will be observed, the shuttle tension will be released irrespective of the direction of rotation of the crank shaft, being wholly dependent upon the direction of motion of the lay. Thus, on back- 180 ward movements of the lay, the shuttle tension will be released irrespective of the direction of rotation of the crank shaft, and no forward movement of the lay can occur with the dagger raised above the frog unless the shuttle is in the box.

This application is a continuing application of the application of the present inventor entitled Shuttle box tension controlling mechanism for looms, filed November 16, 1923, Serial No. 675,121, Patent No. 1,610,701.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is:

1. A loom having, in combination, a lay, shuttle boxes, binders for the shuttle boxes, and means for applying pressure to the binders, including a bypass device mounted on the lay and a stationary cam operating to release the binder pressure during a portion of the backward beat of the lay, without causing binder release on any forward beat of the lay.

2. A loom having, in combination, a lay, shuttle boxes binders for the shuttle boxes, a dagger shaft, connections between the dagger shaft and binders, an arm secured to the dagger shaft, a rod connected at one end to the arm, and means for applying spring pressure to the rod to cause the dagger shaft to be turned in the direction to cause pressure to be exerted by the dagger shaft on the binders, a stationary cam, a by-pass contrivance connected with the dagger shaft acting to release the pressure on the binders during the early portion of the rearward movement of the lay to permit picking of the shuttle without pressure thereon from the binders due to the connections between the binders and the dagger shaft.

3. A loom having, in combination, a lay, shuttle boxes, binders for the shuttle boxes, and means for releasing the binder pressure when the lay is substantially at top center upon a rearward beat of the lay and reapplying binder pressure within a small angle thereafter constructed and arranged to cause no binder release on any forward beat of the lay.

4. A loom having, in combination, a lay, shuttle boxes, binders for the shuttle boxes, an arm connected with the binders, and

formed as a by-pass mounted on the lay, fixed means on the frame for engaging the by-pass to release the binder pressure on a rearward beat of the lay and to permit the arm to pass freely through yielding movement of the by-pass on a forward beat, a sliding rod connected with the arm, and a compression spring acting on the rod to cause the binders to press with maximum pressure when the la is at back center and with gradually decreasing pressure as the lay moves forwardly from back center.

5. A loom having, in combination, a lay, shuttle boxes. binders for the shuttle boxes, a dagger shaft, connections between the dagger shaft and the binders, an arm secured to the dagger shaft, a pivotally mounted by pass on said arm, yielding means acting on the pivotally mounted by-pass to normally maintain it in one position, a fixed cam on the loom frame for moving the by-pass upon its pivot against the action of said yieldingly acting means as the lay moves to front position and causin the by-pass to release the binder pressure during the early portion of rearward movement of the lay.

6. A loom having, in combination, a lay, shuttle boxes, binders for the shuttle boxes, means for applying pressure to the binders, adjustable binder releasing means for releasing the binder pressure as the lay moves back from front position including a bypass mounted von the lay, and a spring dagger shaft stop for preventing overthrow of the binders when engaged by the entering shuttle and compensating for various amounts of binder release.

7. A loom having, in combination, a lay, shuttle boxes, binders for the shuttle boxes, means for applying pressure to the binders including a by-pass device mounted on the lay and a stationary cam operating to release the binder pressure during substantially the icking portion only of the backward beat 0 the lay and without causin binder release on any forward beat of the ay, and a spring dag er stop for preventing overthrow of the binder when the shuttle enters the box.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

JONAS NORTHROP. 

